Business boot camp helps Marietta student bring her sweet dream to life

Lilly Franchino had a sweet tooth and an idea. The Marietta College junior was helping plan her sister’s birthday party and wanted to hire someone to come and dish out soft-serve ice cream (a family favorite).

Despite searching all over Southeast Ohio, Franchino came up empty. Sensing an opportunity, she began sketching ideas for her own business. A contact tipped her off to a start-up contest, Ignite Appalachia, run by Ohio University’s George Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Service in partnership with the Columbus-based Economic & Community Development Institute (ECDI).

Ignite Appalachia was a boot camp of eight two-hour sessions over three months where Franchino and her classmates learned the nuts and bolts of becoming a successful entrepreneur.

“It wasn’t the most exciting stuff, but it was crucial to have a strong base for your business,” she says. “I had really good conversations with people in the same boat as me and others who were more than willing to put time and effort into my business.”

One of the mentors was the Voinovich School’s Nathaniel Berger. He helped lead the boot camp, tapping into his experience leading Voinovich entrepreneur efforts and corralling small business owners across Washington County to share their stories.

“We took them from nothing to something,” says Berger. “We ensured that their idea had traction and market validity, teaching them the skills to do those things and then helping them set up and prepare for the pitch competition.”

The competition was the capstone to the boot camp, and Franchino’s idea was the top vote-getter. The money awarded helped her launch Swirled, a portable soft-serve ice cream cart that can be reserved by event planners and caterers for a set number of people or serve as a more traditional on-demand food truck. She spent $1,200 on her ice cream machine, which churns out vanilla, chocolate, or a swirl of the two together.

And while the 2024 boot camp has concluded, the Voinovich School and the ECDI resources are still available for participants to tap into.

Berger has connected Franchino with OHIO’s School of Art + Design in the Chaddock + Morrow College of Fine Arts to help her design her logo and website. Participants also have access to other resources in the ECDI ecosystem.

“We don't abandon them because just because they won a competition,” says Berger. “We want them to be successful in the long term.”